| Abstract from DBPedia | Desalination is a process that takes away mineral components from saline water. More generally, desalination refers to the removal of salts and minerals from a target substance, as in soil desalination, which is an issue for agriculture. Saltwater (especially sea water) is desalinated to produce water suitable for human consumption or irrigation. The by-product of the desalination process is brine. Desalination is used on many seagoing ships and submarines. Most of the modern interest in desalination is focused on cost-effective provision of fresh water for human use. Along with recycled wastewater, it is one of the few rainfall-independent water resources. Due to its energy consumption, desalinating sea water is generally more costly than fresh water from surface water or groundwater, water recycling and water conservation. However, these alternatives are not always available and depletion of reserves is a critical problem worldwide. Desalination processes are usually driven by either thermal (in the case of distillation) or mechanical (e.g. in the case of reverse osmosis) energy types.海水淡水化（かいすいたんすいか）とは、海水を処理して淡水（真水）を作り出すこと、及びその設備を指す。 もしその場所が海辺であり、飲料用等で真水が必要とされる場所の近くに淡水源（河川、湖沼）等がなく、気候等の関係で天水（雨）の利用も難しい場合に行われている。 海水には約3.5%の塩分が含まれており、そのままでは飲用に適さない。飲用水とするためには塩分濃度を0.05%以下にまで下げる必要がある。海水淡水化プロセスの基本は海水からの脱塩処理である。 (Source: http://dbpedia.org/resource/Desalination) |
